Easykard? Avoid it like the plague...

Thinking of getting one of those pre-paid cards from Easykard? In a nutshell, don't!

About a year or so back, I decided I wanted to be a little more secure online and get a limited credit card for use online, and Easykard appeared to offer the ideal service.

Easykard is one of those credit cards where you pre-load the card with funds then use it as you like. On the face of it, a pretty decent service, one which I thought would be ideal for my "online" card, something to use for those times where I want to be extra super careful and really limit the risk of fraud.

Little did I think the problems would be with the company itself.

On Monday this week I tried to use the card with an online supplier I had never used before, a fairly small purchase and I knew there were ample funds available on the card.

It was declined.

Thinking this odd, I tried again taking extra care to check the numbers I entered.

The transaction was declined again.

Being a little concerned I logged into the Easykard service to check my balance, and curiously the system which gives an online balance was unavailable, so I was forced to call the company.

To be fair, they answered very quickly, but what they told me was quite a shock "We're sorry, but we had to cancel all the cards" I was informed!

Apparently, a "system fault" meant that all the "Easykard" accounts had been suspended or cancelled, for *every* card holder. What's worse is that when I enquired about that time the system would be back up again, I was informed "Oh, we have not been given a time frame, try again on *FRIDAY*". If it was someone else’s money, I would have laughed by this point, but it gets even better.

I was offered an alternative card, a shiny new Visa card, but with a catch, it's in $dollars. Basically this means that any money you pay into it is tied into the exchange rate, utter lunacy.

I'm sure I will eventually get my money back, but needless to say, I don't have much of a future with Easykard and I strongly advise anyone else to avoid using them.

The most unforgiveable thing for me is this, Easykard didn't even have the common courtesy to email their account holders and inform them of the problem and not to try and use their cards. I shudder when I think what has happened to people who are relying on their cards while on holiday, or even just at the end of a shopping queue.